Genesis 32–33 — Breaking and Blessing

This sermon is from Genesis chapter 32 and 33 and is entitled Breaking and Blessing.

Genesis 32 · chapter mention

It was delivered to Ekklesia Churches on Sunday,

October 18,

2026.

Since the moment that Adam and Eve reached for the one fruit in the whole garden that

was forbidden.

Humanity has been struggling with this desire for control.

Cain wanted the favor of

God, but didn't want to honor God for it, so he murdered.

People came together to build a tower

to heaven and walked away confused.

And even people who seem like pretty good people have this habit

of reaching for control.

Abraham wanted control over his family in his time,

and so he reached for

Hagar.

Isaac wanted control over who he blessed and tried to disobey God and bless Esau.

And Jacob,

with a name that means heel grasper or overreacher,

has spent his entire life reaching to control his

destiny and elevate himself by his own strength.

And while he walks away from Laban,

his uncle,

with enormous wealth,

he leaves a trail of brokenness behind him and faces a broken relationship

with his brother and his father and his father-in-law.

There's something broken in him that leads him to grasp for his own glory,

no matter the consequences.

And only when that sinful pride is broken,

will he actually find the blessing that he desires.

If we were to be honest with ourselves,

we can see the same pride in ourselves.

We waste our lives seeking our own good and glory and failing to find either peace or

satisfaction through all of our striving.

And I submit to you today that the blessing you have been searching for, you will never

find in all of your reaching for it.

But in fact, it is offered to you freely by the God who has reached down to you.

Our greatest blessing is actually found in the breaking of our pride.

Let's go to Genesis chapter 32,

Genesis 32 · chapter mention

starting with verses 1 through 8.

And the messengers returned to Jacob,

saying,

We have come to your brother Esau,

and he is coming to meet you,

and there are 400 men with him.

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.

He divided the people who were with him and the flocks and herds and camels into two camps,

thinking,

if Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.

Jacob is coming face to face with two realities in this first part of the passage,

And he has a choice to respond with faith in God or with fear of losing control.

The first reality is that God is with him and is for him and will protect him.

Remember,

when Jacob was leaving Canaan in chapter 28,

God first introduced himself,

showing him that God stood over all, this ladder that came down to Jacob.

Now, not so far from the place that he called Bethel,

God reveals to Jacob an entire camp of angels that is very near to his own camp.

It is a reminder of what Jacob already knows to be true,

that God goes with him and has promised to bless him.

Jacob calls the place Mahanaim,

which means two camps.

He sees and knows that while he may not always see this second camp, the Lord is near.

King David will write in Psalm 34,

7,

referencing revelations like this, that the angel of the

Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.

This is a reminder of God's promise of deliverance.

And Jacob is emboldened by his recent success.

I mean, he got away from Laban.

He has a large family.

He has enormous wealth.

God goes with him,

but he remembers what he did to Esau.

And he remembers the threat on his life.

And it seems like he already has plans to make amends with Esau.

In fact, if we look at a map,

we can see that he's already taken a detour on this return

trip to head south toward Edom,

where Esau is,

instead of west to Canaan.

So after seeing these angels,

he pulls the trigger.

He sends a messenger to Esau,

indicating that he comes in peace with gifts.

When your brother has threatened to kill you and you haven't seen him for 20 years, you

don't just waltz in with a, hey bro, how's it going?

He opens with this humble language that he gives to the servants,

calling him my Lord,

calling himself your servant, indicating the gifts that he plans to give.

But plans change when the servant returns and says, Esau is actually already heading

this way with an army.

So 400 men is a specific number that indicates a complete militia or a fighting force.

So Jacob believes that Esau has no plans to find favor,

but plans for his destruction.

Do you see this conflict that's already happening within Jacob between what God has told him

and what he believes to be true?

He knows what God has revealed to him,

but he sees what's in front of him.

and has to make a choice about what he believes.

Will he walk by faith or by sight?

Well,

he believes

what he sees.

And as a result, he's filled with fear and anxiety.

He forgets the reality of the

two camps and actually splits his own camp in two,

anticipating this worst-case scenario.

Because knowing what God promises and believing those promises are two very different things.

especially when you are face to face with what seems like disaster.

These crisis moments that we experience force us to choose which camp we are going to believe in.

When you hear news from around the world about war and violence and conflict,

will you believe God that these things are going to happen but that his kingdom is unstoppable

and the end of these things is coming?

When you're facing economic downturn or a job loss or the bottom of your bank account,

are you going to panic?

Or are you going to take Jesus at his word that God knows what you need and cares about

you and will provide what you need?

Some of you have looked death in the face recently.

You've sat with friends and loved ones facing illness and faced the decision to believe that

while this life has suffering,

the hope of Jesus is eternal.

That healing is coming even if it

might not be on this side.

Often,

the fear that we experience in crisis results from a forgetfulness

that God is sovereign.

We start grasping for control,

thinking that we're somehow sovereign

over our own circumstances,

having faith in God's sovereignty and abandoning our own belief that we

are in control is a choice.

And it's a choice that the world looks at and just does not understand it.

1 Corinthians 2.14 says, the choices we make to believe God seem like foolishness to the world.

But the Spirit of God allows us to believe a reality that goes beyond what we can simply see.

that a sovereign God is actually working all things out for his glory and for our good.

And that belief gives us peace that scripture says goes beyond our understanding what we can

see in the moment.

But Jacob isn't there right now.

He's terrified.

And so he runs to God

in prayer.

This is the best thing that Jacob or you or I can possibly do in a situation like this.

So let's read this prayer together.

This is starting with verse 9.

And Jacob said,

hand of my brother,

from the hand of Esau, for I fear him that he may come and attack me,

the mothers

with the children. But you said, I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of

the sea,

which cannot be numbered for multitude.

This prayer is so filled with good stuff.

He's

to be the one that will fulfill those promises.

He's recognizing how much God has blessed him to this point,

that he came to this land with nothing,

and now he comes out with two camps worth of people and possessions.

And maybe the most incredible part of all is he recognizes

that he's not worthy of the things God has done for him and promised him.

He is rightly asking God for deliverance,

and all of this is a step in exactly the right direction.

He's putting his hope in the camp of God,

but the moment he says,

amen,

he starts stepping

out of that camp and back toward his pride again.

He essentially says, I can fix this and starts pulling together the largest bribe that you've

ever seen.

He calls it a gift, but it's a bribe.

He pulls out goats and sheep and camels and cows and donkeys.

he sends over 500 animals with his servants to give to Esau.

Wave after wave of gifts,

hoping to give Esau a kind of Christmas morning experience. So by the time he's done unwrapping

all five of these waves of gifts,

he's not so angry.

The value of this gift probably comes to

somewhere around $350,000 in today's money,

which we can say is significant.

But in the ancient

world.

This gift, this size of gift was the type that a city-state might give to a conquering king

to be spared destruction.

And that's what this is.

In spite of his faith-filled prayer moments ago,

Jacob is acting like a man expecting destruction and trying to buy his freedom.

He's saying all of

the right things,

but his actions demonstrate very little faith in the God that he prays to.

Anybody else feeling convicted by that statement?

I am.

I think there are two main ways that we fall

for this kind of behavior.

The first is by saying we believe God is in control,

but still living

controlled by fear of losing.

Still living with, you know,

multiple news apps on our phones,

with notifications on so that we lie awake worrying about what the world is coming to.

Still chasing distractions of all different kinds,

hoping to make it to the weekend instead

of considering how God would have us make the most of our time today.

Praying your kingdom come,

but living my will be done.

When you live your life thinking that it is up to you to keep your kingdom from crumbling,

it is very hard to think of the kingdom of heaven,

and it is impossible to find peace.

The second way that we do this is a little more subtle, but I think it's just as dangerous.

It can be hard to grasp that our deliverance is a free gift of God,

that it was paid for

by Jesus when he died on the cross and rose from the dead.

And in our pride, we believe

that we must somehow earn our salvation.

I've heard people say things like, it can't be that

simple.

There has to be more to it.

What this ends up looking like is people who appear

very good.

They're very religious,

but they are incredibly exhausted inside

because they're trying to buy God's favor without actually submitting to Jesus.

And it's not that

most of these things they're doing are bad,

but when we try to earn God's love by doing good works,

instead of doing good works because we have experienced God's love,

we've got it backwards.

Going to God and praying in faith is absolutely the right move in a crisis,

but we then have to walk in that same faith we profess.

Jacob takes one more step before nightfall.

He sent out the herds,

he sends his family

across the river,

and then he waits out the night on the north side.

Whether he did this to have time to think or was trying to just keep a river between him and Esau

for one more night, I do not know.

But someone else comes to visit Jacob during the night.

Let's read verses 24 through 30.

And Jacob was left alone,

and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.

When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob,

he touched his hip socket,

and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

Then he said, Let me go,

for the day is broken.

But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me.

And he said to him, What is your name?

And he said,

Jacob.

Then he said,

Your name shall no longer be

called Jacob,

but Israel,

for you have striven with God and with man and have prevailed.

Then Jacob

asked him,

Please tell me your name.

But he said,

Why is it that you ask my name?

And there he

blessed him.

So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,

saying,

for I have seen God face to face,

and yet my life has been delivered.

This is admittedly one of the stranger occurrences

in Genesis,

and it leaves us asking a lot of questions.

So before we try to establish

the meaning of this,

let's go through the details for a moment.

First,

Who is this man wrestling with Jacob?

Well,

throughout the dark night,

Jacob doesn't know who this is, but he starts to suspect

something when the man dislocates his hip with a simple touch,

effectively ending this

wrestling match.

And as he leaves the area afterward, he recognizes that it was God wrestling with him through

the night.

But how is this God?

God is a spirit.

He doesn't have a body.

But on occasion, we see God take the appearance of a man in order to interact with men,

like

Abraham and now Jacob.

This isn't the same as when God truly became man in the person of Jesus.

Jesus wasn't just God appearing to be a man.

He became fully human.

Scripture says he became flesh and dwelled among us,

all while remaining fully God.

But this interaction with Jacob is often referred to in scripture as the angel of the Lord,

meaning the appearance of God in a manlike form.

The prophet Hosea actually shed some light on this for us.

In Hosea 12 verses 3 and 4, he says,

Hosea 12:3

And in his manhood he strove with God.

He strove with the angel and prevailed.

So this was indeed the angel of the Lord.

God temporarily appearing as a man to accomplish some purpose,

which brings us to our next question.

Why did God wrestle with Jacob all night long?

And what does it mean that Jacob prevailed?

Certainly,

the God of the universe is stronger than Jacob.

If God's intent was to crush Jacob,

he would be dust,

but instead,

he wrestles with him.

This word wrestle is a Hebrew word that is derived from the word dust.

It means to grapple or struggle in the dust.

What is going on here that this man made of dust is wrestling with his maker?

Wrestling in the ancient world was very much the same as it is today.

The purpose isn't to kill your opponent.

They're not trading blows.

They're wrestling for dominance.

Put another way, they're fighting for control.

And I think with that,

things start to become clearer.

God's purpose here is to help Jacob to finally submit,

to stop grasping for control.

But Jacob is a fighter, always has been.

And instead of submitting,

instead of tapping out and giving up the fight for control, he

just keeps going.

And it's at this point that God does something incredibly merciful for Jacob.

He dislocates his hip in one move,

taking away almost all of his natural strength.

He has no leverage left, no strength.

He clings to his opponent.

And it's then that the Lord says to this now broken man, let me go.

It's getting light.

We know from Exodus 33 that because God is holy, no sinful man can look at him and live.

Jacob has been protected by his ignorance in this dark night, but the sun is coming.

And as he clings to the man exhausted and weak and weeping,

he says, I won't let you

go unless you bless me.

This is a different man who suddenly doesn't want anything more than the blessing of God.

Hosea says it was the favor of God that Jacob yearned for in this moment.

He finally understood after being broken of his pride that nothing he had was so much to be desired as living in the favor of God.

And look at how God responds to him.

He asked Jacob,

what is your name?

Or said another way, who are you?

He's asking Jacob to admit to something to which he can only respond,

my name is Jacob.

and his name rings like a conviction of his character.

My name is heel grasper.

My name is

overreacher,

is deceiver, to which God responds, not anymore.

And he gives him a new name,

Israel,

which means one who has striven or wrestled with God. He is redefining who Jacob is now

as someone who God has not only claimed by naming him,

but is forming into someone new.

His name is a statement that means essentially,

I belong to God and he is working on me.

Blessing is found in belonging to God.

Never in my life have I identified more with Jacob.

As a man who myself have spent much of my life wrestling for control of it,

and when I failed to achieve my own blessing and my own peace,

I'm filled with anxiety and fear.

And when I come to the Lord and I recognize my own brokenness and I submit to him,

it's there that I find peace like a river that flows from the provision of God over me.

I stand amazed at the mercy of God who not only allows me to live,

but claims me as his own and continues working on me.

Jacob's story really closes in chapter 33.

And you can read that mostly for yourself.

Jacob goes limping to catch up with his family.

And when they get to Esau,

Esau embraces him with tears.

Because God has done something that Jacob could not in the heart of Esau.

God restores their relationship.

And instead of trying to kill Jacob,

Esau hugs him.

Instead of coming after his family,

Esau wants to meet them.

Esau initially doesn't even want the animals that Jacob tried to give him.

Jacob has to insist that he take them.

Now there's still work being done in Jacob because even after Esau invites him to come

home with him, he lies about coming and then goes across the river the other way.

But Jacob isn't our example,

really.

Our hope isn't in Israel,

the man or the nation.

It's in the Messiah who would come from him.

As we close up this passage,

it's important that we lift up our eyes from Jacob and find our hope in Christ Jesus,

who is our real Savior.

Jacob thought of himself and his own safety and his own comfort for most of his life,

selfishly taking what he could.

Philippians 2,

4-8 says,

Jesus humbled himself and took the form of a servant,

putting others before himself.

If we look at Jacob,

Jacob prayed that God would rescue him and then went about still trying to

rescue himself.

But Jesus prayed in the garden,

your will be done.

And then obediently walked

toward his own death.

From the cross, he prayed for forgiveness for those who crucified him.

And in Romans 8.34, it says,

Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God and is indeed interceding for

us.

Who needs to pray to anyone else or anything else when we have the Son of God praying for us

now even as we speak?

Jacob wrestled with God and was spared the wrath of God that he deserved,

was given a new name,

but Jesus,

Jesus submitted to the will of God.

Jesus took the wrath of God

for us.

Isaiah 53.5 says he was crushed for our sin.

He took the punishment that brought us peace

and by his wounds,

we are healed.

As we prepare for communion every week in our gatherings,

it's the wounds of Christ that we should always close with remembering.

The truth that Jesus says in Luke 22,

this is my body which is given for you.

Through his broken body, we are able to come die to our pride and live a new life.

Hebrews 12 says that the sprinkled blood of Jesus speaks a better word over us.

Through the blood of Jesus,

we are given a new name.

We gladly call ourselves Christians because we find our identity not in ourselves,

but in Christ and his kingdom.

Through Christ,

our sinful pride is broken,

and we find blessing in belonging to Jesus.

at ecclesiachurches.org.